As technology in the gaming industry progresses, traditional mechanically driven reel slot machines are being replaced and/or supplemented with electronic counterparts having various video displays, as gaming machines such as video slot machines and video poker machines are becoming increasingly popular. Part of the reason for their increased popularity is the nearly endless variety of games that can be implemented on gaming machines utilizing advanced electronic technology. In some cases, newer gaming machines are utilizing computing architectures developed for personal computers. These video and electronic gaming advancements enable the operation of more complex and entertaining games that would not otherwise be possible on mechanical-driven gaming machines, and thus allow the capabilities of the gaming machine to evolve with advances in the personal computing industry.
Typically, a gaming machine includes a master gaming controller (“MGC”) that controls various combinations of devices that allow a player to wager on and play a wager based game on the gaming machine, as well as to generally encourage game play on the gaming machine. For example, a game played on a gaming machine usually requires a player to input money or indicia of credit into the gaming machine, indicate a wager amount, and initiate a game play. These steps require the gaming machine to accept player credit from various intake devices, such as bill validators and coin acceptors, to recognize user inputs from various input devices, including handles, touch screens, buttons and the like, and to determine the wager amount and initiate game play. After game play has been initiated, the gaming machine typically determines a game outcome, presents the game outcome to the player and may dispense an award of some type, possibly including a monetary award, depending on the outcome of the game. A game outcome presentation may utilize many different visual and audio components such as flashing lights, music, sounds and graphics. The visual and audio components of the game outcome presentation may be used to draw attention to various game features and to heighten interest in additional game play. Capturing and maintaining interest in game play, such as on a gaming machine or during other gaming activities, is an important consideration for an operator of a gaming establishment.
One well known method of gaining and maintaining player interest in game play on gaming machines, table games and other sources of gaming activity is to provide a player rewards or loyalty point program, such as one of the many player rewards and tracking programs offered at a variety of casinos. Various actual player rewards programs include, for example, the “Player's Club,” “Boarding Pass,” “Total Rewards®” and “One Club” programs, among others. These and other similar player rewards or loyalty point programs provide rewards to players that tend to correspond to the level of patronage of the players (e.g., to playing frequency and/or total amount of game plays or wagers at a given casino). Various loyalty point or player rewards may include, for example, free or reduced price meals, lodging, entertainment, or merchandise, among other items. Monetary awards and/or free or special game plays may also be provided. These rewards may help to sustain player interest in additional game play during a visit to a gaming establishment, and may also entice a player to visit or return to a gaming establishment to partake in various gaming activities.
In general, loyalty programs may be applied to any game of chance offered at a gaming establishment, and such programs are generally implemented using a player tracking system, as is well known in the art. Such a player tracking system can include a central server and database, as well as a plurality of associated player tracking units or devices provided at various gaming machines, terminals and other program sponsoring locations. Such player tracking units or devices are preferably adapted to accept player identifying indicia, such as magnetic stripe player tracking cards or other similarly suitable player identifiers. A player tracking device typically contains at least a card reader, a keypad and a display, as well as a separate controller adapted to control specific player tracking functions and to communicate with the MGC of the gaming machine and the central player tracking server, as is generally known in the art. As a particular example, an MGC may employ a subset of the Slot Accounting System (“SAS”) protocol developed by IGT of Reno, Nev., in order to communicate with certain kinds of player tracking units and systems. Added details of player tracking systems and loyalty point programs can be found in a variety of references, such as, for example, commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/927,742 by Kaminkow, entitled “Flexible Loyalty Points Programs,” which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety and for all purposes.
Another known method of gaining and maintaining player interest in a gaming environment, such as in game play on gaming machines, table games and other sources of gaming activity, is to provide promotional ticket drawings or raffles. Such events typically involve players earning or being awarded ticket entries to a ticket drawing where a prize is given to the holder of a winning ticket drawn from all of the ticket entries. Such prizes can include cars, vacations, lodging, show tickets or passes, food, merchandise and other items, as well as straight cash prizes. Players or patrons can earn or be awarded ticket entries for a variety of activities and events, and may in some instances be provided with ticket entries simply for signing up.
Although such ticket based drawings can be useful in that they do tend to generate interest amongst patrons, game players and potential patrons and game players, there are a number of drawbacks to such approaches. For one thing, the prize or prizes for a typical ticket drawing tend to be set well in advance. This can result in the award of a prize that is not commensurate with the level of player participation or interest that the ticket drawing was intended to generate. Where levels of interest and participation exceed expectations of the ticket drawing promoter or provider, this may not be an issue. Where interest and participation levels fall short of expectations, however, then the ticket drawing promoter or provider may take a significant loss with respect to the prize or prizes that were provided. For example, a given gaming operator may provide a ticket drawing promotion having a grand prize of a new car, where the expectation is that such a prize should generate enough interest and/or player participation to result in 10,000 ticket entries to the drawing. In the event that only 4000 ticket entries are actually created and put into the drawing, then the level of actual interest and participation has fallen far short of that which was expected, resulting in a likely net overall loss to the gaming operator. Such disappointing results can and do happen, such that the creation and advertisement of a promotional ticket drawing having one or more guaranteed prizes has at least this drawback.
In addition, many forms of ticket based drawings are manual in nature, such that most or every ticket entry is created on a separate ticket, sheet of paper or other physical item, whereupon it is placed into a hopper or bin with all of the other submitted ticket entries. Not only do such manual systems and methods require a significant amount of time and effort on the part of the ticket drawing promoter, but they are also susceptible to error and fraud. Ticket entries may be distributed in error, such as by an employee who does not fully understand the rules of the ticket drawing and how entries are to be properly awarded. In the case of fraud, an unscrupulous employee or other party may, for example, steal or otherwise obtain a number of tickets illegitimately, and then cause these extra tickets to be added to the bin for a potential win to himself another undeserving party. Also, the very technique of drawing a “winning” ticket manually may be susceptible to fraud or tampering by a sophisticated party or team or conspirators, depending upon the security measures and controls that may or may not be put in place by the ticket drawing sponsor.
While existing systems and methods for providing ticket based drawings have been adequate in the past, improvements are usually welcomed and encouraged. In light of the foregoing, it is desirable to develop ticket based drawings and bonus games for a gaming environment that can provide more reliable and verifiable results and procedures, and in particular for such ticket based drawings and bonus games to comprise a more transparent and auditable process and result, with prizes that are created and awarded in relation to the actual overall level of player participation.